


Dream of the Eclipsed: Lord of Light part 5

by Deruste_the_Archiever



Series: Lord of Light [5]
Category: DCU (Comics), Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Crossover, Deal with a Devil, Dreams, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-21
Updated: 2018-05-21
Packaged: 2019-05-09 17:57:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14720886
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Deruste_the_Archiever/pseuds/Deruste_the_Archiever
Summary: Elio has gained friend and foe on his journey but has now gone fully into the domain of a dangerous being. A being with a bizarre interest in him. The length this journey has neared its end the penultimate chapter is here and with it a deal that promise so much in exchange of a little price.





	Dream of the Eclipsed: Lord of Light part 5

I should have passed out from pain, I should have burn marks on my face. At the very least nearly at the edge of death. Alas, God appears to want me to suffer for a bit longer as I did feel pain, boy did I feel great pain, I wasn’t any closer to death. If you ever felt the heat of a campfire up close, put your entire face in the embers and that's how I felt. For some reason though, after a while, I actually felt a bit stronger. Like someone put jumper cables to my soul. The dragon looked at me with great confusion and disappointment that its meal wasn't medium done but still raw.

“Sorry to disappoint,” I remarked as I picked myself up. The dragon stared at me with fascination, turning its head both ways to get a closer look at me. I felt my face, there were no burn marks on it, the only thing on me that burned were my work clothes. The standard employee uniform I still had on. Everything above the armpit was ash now, leaving my upper chest and shoulder exposed.

“You standing, boss!” I heard Nacho’s and Aegle’s combined query from behind the fence that was containing the dragon.

“Mostly! Still feeling a searing pain in nearly all my pores but standing. Takes a lot more than that to kill me off.”

“So my hunch was right. You are immune to fire damage but guessing from your twitching, not the pain.” Nacho said in an inquisitive manner. I flashed a glare at him. “ Had me going for a second their boss.” The dragon kept a confused look but maintained it to my eye level. Glinting and very aware with a natural glow of curiosity, no malice surprisingly. Maybe it found it interesting that I didn't die to the flames. It started to creep closer to me but kept a slow curious crawl, maybe it was hiding its true intention. Animals are harder to read than people.

“Elio getaway! Let's just get you a Pegasus!” Aegle screamed, getting the beast’s attention.

“Hey, I was the one you were slow roasting!” I regained its stare and sat on my knees in the mud. “Keep away from it, it just wants me!” Aegle stepped away from the fence as Nacho quaked in his fins. I tried to remember a verse _The Lord is my shepherd; there is nothing I lack. In green pastures you let me graze; to safe waters, you lead me; you restore my strength. You guide me along the right path for the sake of your name. Even when I walk through a dark valley, I fear no harm for you are at my side; your rod and staff give me courage._ Something to calm me and hopefully give me deliverance. Given the condition of the ranch and these stables, I’m willing to bet this Greyon didn’t put much care into the health of the animals. Just enough to make sure they didn’t die, So I thought that if I keep calm and tried to seem friendly, the macaw dragon wouldn't try to shred me to ribbons. My hands glowed brightly and the beast was focused on that rather than me. I felt a weak thought like my strength was oozing out of me, draining slowly from my hands.

Great! On my list of powers, there is a generic stat boost and “true sight”, whatever the hell that means. The fire absorption can be handy, but one, it only works for fire so far, which means there are so many other things that can kill me. Second, again I still felt the pain! In fact, I'm still reeling from the slow roast. Lucky the dragon didn’t make a quick move and got near the light in my hands. Let’s see if it will bite them off. And...it snuggles and nibbles like a puppy, the teeth nearly broke the skin but that was it. There was no damage.

“Umm, down boy?” I said with an awkward smile, spreading my arms and the now enthusiastic dragon rubbed its long painted body against me. One of the spikes nearly got my eye. “I think I made a friend.” Aegle and Nacho finally went over the fence into the pen with me.

“So, someone finally tamed the Quetzalcoatl. You really are something else Boss.” The beast roared in his face in defiance.

“Hey, you already got Tobias and Yuri! Piss off!” Nacho yelled as I picked myself up. Aegle slithered to my side, keeping her distance from the Dragon.

“Quetzalcoatl? Isn't that an Aztec god?” I inquired as I was taking off my burned uniform.

“We found this thing out west in the desert flats. It looked like those statues in the Yucatan so we gave it that name, Greyson just called it the feathered dragon.” Nacho said circling around the bright feathered wings.

“Juan,” I said rubbing the wings of my new pet, Juan.

“Juan? Why that name of all things?” Nacho asked while getting behind me.

“Juan Ponce De Leon was the conquistador that conquered Puerto Rico. I am a native, this scaly beast tried to kill me. So Juan.” Not the best logic but there aren't that many good Spanish names for dragons. Aegle cleared her throat and arched her back in an attempt to look commanding.

“Nacho get the chariot. Elio gets a new shirt, I'm going to make a phone call or two.” Aegle said slithering out of the pen, giving me and the dragon one last look before leaving. I went to the car, hoping that my luggage survived the trampling of animals as Juan followed close behind, nudging my hands. They had stopped glowing and making heat, which was fine because it was freaking me the fuck out. But there was also something else. When I get the chance I'm going to learn this flashlight hand thing because it felt like I was slowly dying as I was using it. Like my soul was the battery for my one offensive power, that was draining me dry. I would be happy if it never resurfaced again. Juan seemed to be displeased by the loss of heat but still kept close to me, properly to see when it will happen again. Note to self, Juan is attracted to heat, also note, Get a heater as a present when he does something worthwhile.

Just as one would expect after half a dozen monsters rampage, the car was mostly scrapped metal, the sides were taken off like the crust of a sandwich. Luckily they missed the bag holding the last of my clothes and after a quick change into loose shorts and a white t-shirt, I walked down the hill with Juan in tow, towards the Ranch house where Aegle and Nacho were arguing.

“What do you mean it’s too late!” Nacho barked.

“I mean it's near midnight and a lot of the people need to sleep! We are going straight to bed when we get back.” Aegle said passive aggressively.

“And me without popcorn. Guessing the welcome was postponed.” Aegle looked worried while Nacho was pacing in circles in apparent rage.

“Why is it that I’m the only one today trying to exhibit a sense of priority, it physically hurts to be the responsible one.”

“Welcome to my Realm “ Aegle rolled her eyes. “The others are coming, Ramon is close and Camacho is right with him.” Ramon owned the farm that employed me. It was my first job and the closest thing to a second home for a little while. Stayed till I was 14, should be about four years ago’s. I remember him as a nice, generous man with a sheep obsession which apparently has moved to pork. Regardless he was fair and mostly honest, he had me work for my stay and let me self-educate with his books. He would cook the food I picked from the farm, the ones I helped grow. When I was bit older, he taught me to cook my own dishes as well, I would be a diabetic fatass without his recipes. His farm was also the place I stayed the longest, four years.

Camacho ….he was a different animal compared to everyone else I have ever known. To say that he was intense would be giving him not enough credit. He taught me how to fight but I think it was because he was bored mostly. He hung around a flea market I was working at the time getting money by fighting, betting and demonstrating moves. He offered his help in defending wares I was selling from being stolen by cheeky little bastards and some gangsters. After a while, he straight up asked if he could teach me how to fight. I don’t remember but I think he was bored of defending me so he wanted me to defend myself. He taught me a thing or two about some fighting techniques. Mostly defending, kicks and quick strikes. He taught me mainly capoeira, kick dancing he called it and some boxing to learn some decent punches he actually still taught me till a few months ago. Guess he was part of Dad’s war. At least he manages to come back alive. I think he said I had the technique and speed down but not quite the strength, I was pulling my punches too much. I wonder how rusty I am right now. I should practice as soon as I can.

“Well, I'm going to bed.” Aegle and Nacho turned to me.

“Alright you just used your power so it's natural you want to rest,” Aegle said, grabbing my shoulder and leading me to the top floor of the ranch house. I was exhausted but it was more muscle stress then exhaustion. My muscles felt like they went through a marathon and want to quit but had too much adrenaline to truly stop. It's not the reason I was going get some rest, well not the only reason at least. I think it's the only thing that's going to calm me down. This whole day has been a joke followed by moronic punchline after moronic punch line. My jobs, my best friends, my entire damn life after leaving home was a lie. A lie facilitated by my deadbeat of a father, who avoided me since my 11th birthday. A father who saw fit to have a spy watch over me instead of his own damned self while declaring a nonsense war that probably puts a bounty on my head as well. A God that somehow found a way to die. It's got to be on the laundry list of dumb things that I learned about today. Along with the fact that one of the people responsible is a guy near my age with the powers of a sea god in a dumbass package. All that power in a idiot who shot arrows at a potential ally and thought that calmly explaining that I was a son of a God would make me their friend. I need a rest to quell my rage and anger before I hurt someone. I looked at Aegle who seemed to be strangely energized at the moment even though it was past midnight. I could tell with how the moon looked. Now, I can't stop thinking that since my sister was the moon goddess and she is somehow dead that the thing in the sky is basically either a tombstone or a corpse.

“Tell Nacho to get the dragon attached to the chariot. I want to learn how to use that thing, use it for whatever it's good for.” For some reason, the words came out naturally and suddenly. “What was the deal Nacho talked about earlier?” Aegle grimaced as she stopped in the middle of the staircase. The ranch house wasn't anything special by any standard. It was old and abandoned in a state where it seemed to not be in use for a while, months or maybe a year. The strange thing most people don't tell you about living in temperate or just coastline areas is that it means most places must be maintained much more heavily since they get damaged by the weather more often.

“Once upon a time our general, your father gave the command to train you in basic survival. My best guess was to make sure you don't turn out a failure and bring shame to him. When he started to get rid of some of us for older, monstrous and more compliant generals we took it as a sign. A sign that the Titans would treat us like the gods had beforehand, so a bunch of us got together as our own community far from the both of them.” She opened the door to the shabby room with a single window. She opened the window to a city down south on the side of a mountain. “We have monsters of all walks of life. Old workers of the gods who were abused. Some former troops of the titans who defected in the early days before they purged the ranks of supposed traitors. Even some demigods who don't want to serve the gods or have fought them in the war. A place for the lost and weary.”

“What does it have to do with me?” She slithered near the foot of the bed and patted for me to sit.

“To be frank it's all very new to all involved. We all have certain hang-ups about it and we're making it work for the most part but we like your help.”

“How? What can I add that a bunch of Greek monsters and veteran soldiers couldn’t?” She put a hand on my shoulder with a look of guilt. “Your father actually wanted you to be there at the Battle for Manhattan.” I turned to her with anger building within me.

“Why would I-” Aegle put her hand in front of my face.

“Our thoughts exactly. We knew you would not agree to join a war that wasn't your own. It's one of the reasons we want you to help lead our little community. Your hands are clean, a fresh perspective in a sea of jaded eyes and minds.” My ears perked up.

“As your leader?” Her eyes went wide for a moment before breaking into laughter.

“No, we are not so desperate that we need a barely legal teen to lead us. Maybe when you're older but our deal was that we advance your training to its next level now that camp half-blood is involved in all this. Learn to lead gradually by working with the rest of us in a council, by observing us and making sure we rule fairly, learning from interaction. That's all hypotheticals at the moment anyway though so.” She took my bag and tossed it into a corner of the room slithered to the door. “Sleep on it. I'll inform Camacho and Ramon about everything. We leave when dawn approaches.” She closed the door behind her with a quick click. “Buenas Noches! She shouted behind the door.

“Buenas Noches!” I took off most of my clothes and got under the sheets. I won't paint a picture of what the bed or the room was like. Second verse same as the first, the room was damaged by lack of care and the fact it was wood on a humid island. At Least the voice hasn’t popped up again, hooray for partial sanity. I thought about the offer Aegle gave me. It seems actually nice, all considering. I really, really rather not be someone's puppet so this “Camp half-blood” is out of the question and if I'm going to be a demigod I rather do something with it. My life was going barely anywhere before this but it was my life and built by my choices. At least mostly by my choices or is it going to be revealed most of them have been planned out and executed by a space caterpillar in my brain. Makes about as much sense as what else has happened this month. I kid, kid. In all honestly thought no matter what I want it's probably what I should do. Despite how I may seem, responsibility is important to me. People should be held accountable for things they should and should not be doing. If this is what remains of what my father unleashed then it's my responsibility to clean it up and turn into something respectable.

That got my head spinning, maybe a merchant village making money and funneling that in social works. Maybe a training camp to rival that of the gods, that is more straightforward and that does not do the gods errands. Maybe just a town, a place people can come and relax and be at peace, a neutral zone that does a bit of everything to stay afloat. That assumes though that they will let me do all that but the future is coming and not in front of me, so I might as well sleep. If I become the leader of those people Aegle wants me to meet, my first order should be that they must keep me awake because I'm quickly hating the very concept of dreams.

I was hanging from a pit, a very dark and cold one in the ground that seems to go on forever. The only thing keeping me from falling was a tree branch. The dark of the pit seems to whisper in my ears in a strange language.

“Can you escape their curse?” The voice felt like bile pouring down my ear with a cold I never experienced before. It chilled me to the bones. The grim reapers hands were on my neck. “Will you fall like the others? Will he claim you like the rest? Can you escape fate, boy!?” The voice took a more masculine tone, a commanding and freighting tone that scrapped memories from my mind.

“Woah! That's a rather deep pit. You got some issues.” A voice, a more joking and annoying one that I recognized from earlier today. A shadow stained hand reaches down to pick me up. It extended far into the pit, continuing off from an unseen body. The length of it looking like a piece of the night sky was ripped off with the stars plucked off.

“What the hell are you doing here!” I started to struggle while holding onto the branch.

“Keeping my only companion for conversation alive and sane. Well for the most part. Now, are you going to keep staring at me or save yourself from damnation? That's all that pit leads to.” The hand was stern solid with a texture similar to obsidian. I guess I have no choice. The hand kept to the side of the branch, I swing with all my might with the branch, the sound of it breaking became louder and louder with each swing. Before the inevitable snap, I let go of it and frantically grabbed the shadow hand. It felt weird. A bit of stating the obvious but it's hard to describe something that was there and yet not. Like I was hanging on to the hand of a sandstorm, feeling the pellets of something solid but with space in between it. “Goodman. Let's have a chat.”

“Pray tell what?” Eclipso was bad news. Not to stereotype spirits or magical beings but when a being is called Eclipso and is made of literal darkness with an attitude you expect from the devil with his deal-making. You have a guy you not only keep your eye on but should be the picture in the dictionary for the word untrustworthy. “What do you want?” The hand extended further and wrapped itself around me like a harness. A bit undignified but preferable to … whatever that pit is.

“To entertain me and keep you alive. You have been doing a good job of avoiding Thanatos this day.” I was hoisted from the pit and dragged in front of the source of the voice. Instead of a face in the sky, he had a more human appearance. At least more human-like that of a cloud. A basic human shape with the appearance of barely held together gas, pitch black smog that smelled of tar.

“Who?” I said picking myself up.

“The god of death, or at least the arbiter of it. The most famous story of him was when a mortal king managed to chain him up for days before the gods found out. It really shows their intelligence.” That really does not paint a flattering picture of the Olympians if they didn’t notice that death disappeared for a while. “Really though, your uncle is not that smart either. He thinks selling you out to Olympus can give him everything he lost.” My jaw dropped.

“What!” I start pacing in circles in apparent confusion. “How, why, who!”

“The how is by giving you and someone else to that camp. The why is because that place lost some people from your families little spat. The Who, well... you did meet the Jackson boy right. There’s more but I rather he tells it, he's coming to where you are.” My rage was simmering on the surface, ignited under the skin, an inferno inside my chest.

“How did he?” I thought about it for a moment. Two people, I haven't encountered again from the hotel. The goat man Grover, the spoiled redhead.

“Good guess, but narrow it down.”

“How can you?”

“Read your mind. It's simple really, I'm connected to you by dreams. The more I go inside your mind, the more I can roam inside.” He snapped his finger and a recliner and wine poured into his other hand. “I'm trapped here, in the bleed. The “usually” red void of energy that separates the dimensions.” He swirled the wine in his hand and the space around us imitated the motion. “I can manipulate it in any way I desire.” He raised his hand and the swirling mess became solid again. It crystallized into a fortress covered in snowflakes patterns. “But you know the problem with it all. No matter how much I can use it to make a fully functional city or destroy it in more spectacular ways there is no one else. The one thing I can’t make is sentience. So that's why am I contacting and helping you. It’s just freaking fun.”

“Fun? Fun!” This condescending, prideful, arrogant-

“Asshole. Oh, how you wound me. Besides, my boy, those are all synonyms. If your going to insult me at least be creative about it. I will give this bit of information, the goatman was the one who found you. Probably is telling the others where you are right now. He will come, they will force you to go with them and you will do it.” He said munching on recently conjured toast made of clouds.

“Why would I ever-”

“There is a consistent problem with the heroic types.” He stepped out of his chair and the toast he was munching on faded out of existence. “I can hurt you infinitely, till the stars go out and turn to dust, but you won’t break. Target someone else however and you start bending over backward pleading to be gentle. He knows your weakness and will exploit it.” I wanted to say that's not what would happen if it came down to it. I would never agree to any deal but- “You know what I’m saying is true and that all he has to do is threaten the village and your friends. Maybe he’ll threaten the whole island then there would be no choice.” I let my arms drop, limping as I give into the reasoning.

“When?”

“Depending on when I let time move again, I’d say about five minutes or a few days. Time is a moldable factor here.” He stood at the of the pit I was hanging off of and the terrain around us turned to pure marble. Columns around us in a circle with a dome made of stained glass.

“I'm guessing you want something too?” His head turned a hundred degrees with the Cheshire grin returning with bread crumbs floating in the light of his mouth.

“Like I said, you are fun to be around. I want you to live so I can have some company. So I got to thinking, I can slow time here to make a full night sleep last a week. I can make you Achilles’ level of proficiency in a manner of nights, or at least in a manner of a month. All of this so you can live and I have someone to talk to.” His smile was distorting and mesmerizing to watch. It never moved as he talked, still and cold like stone. It was hard to say whether he was lying or not but it felt like he sincerely wanted my company, like someone who was alone for such a long time that a conversation with the mailman was the most enlightening moment of his life.

“I'll give you an answer soon.” He rolled his eyes and made a “go-on” gesture.

“You can still come to me in my dreams till I make a decision.” He snapped his fingers and an orb appeared in his palm.

“Fine! I'll keep observing from my realm of unending possibilities but swear that you will make a decision soon, swear the river Styx.” A barrage of images was swirling in the orb. It was all the events of today in a symphony of confusion. The moment I was told I was a demigod by Jackson’s group. The campfire where Aegle explained the gods to me. The memories of me with Ramon, Nacho, and Camacho. Juan the dragon outside with the rest of my mentors facing a tornado of water. Wait for what!

“It appears your uncle has made the first move. Now what is yours? “ he said looking directly at the orb. His smile disappeared completely as his mouth collapsed into itself like a black hole. I have been jerked around all day with no break. My whole life shattered in an instant, and now my uncle might take away everything that's left. In the form of a hurricane no less.

“Fine, You win. You have your damn deal.” He did the go-on sign again. I swallowed. “On the river Styx.” I Didn’t understand completely what it meant but he was pushing for it. It must be quite the bounding oath.

“As a matter of trust, on my oath to the river Styx, I promise never to try to take over your body. To make sure you’re alive, powerful and give you a way out.” The first two just repeated from earlier but a way out. Out of what?

“The way out of your fate. Do you know what the fate of a demigod is? How they have only lives of servitude, suffering, and sublimation? How they become nothing more than the pawns of divine pissing matches of vengeful deities? And that is without even mentioning the last curse that is thrust upon them.” Three pedestals appeared with Greek pottery on top of them, the classic blood red-orange with pictures painted on them. The first pot had a naked man with a helmet and a spear through the chest, the second one had two naked men spearing a cyclops in the eye, and the final naked man... what was the greek obsession with male nudity? Not that I'm complaining. Like I was saying, was a man with a lion pelt over his shoulders, dying in a fire, three women at his feet. Two were dead with breaks in their necks while the third was weeping with a bottle in her hand.

“Okay, what curse. I already heard the monster thing from Aegle.” His smirk grew larger from the remark.

“Oh, it does involve that but this is the curse of all demigods. No matter what you slay, save or delay, you will always face the final threat. The monster you were not destined to kill that gave the final blow, the goddess you scorn getting the last laugh, the damnation you brought by your own hand. That is the curse of demigods. To be a bright candle that is snuffed out too soon.” The explanation rattled in my ears within an echo of whispers. What he is essentially saying is that I would most likely die by my own hand or by the whims of the gods and fate. Somehow in a few sentences, he decimated my will into nothing but dust on the chilled wind. I was barely even thinking anymore. Most of my actions have been responses to others plans and motives, my choices ended at the point that I threw silverware at Percy Jackson.

“So what? I’m trapped by a doomed destiny?” The area around us shifted once more. This time we were in the center of an open-air greek temple on top of a large hill that overlooked an island.   
  
“I can free you if you free me from this prison.” He pointed to the landscape around us and it was an empty place. There were was building and plants but it was silent and still. No bugs, no wind, not even a cloud in the sky. A never-ending cold blue in the sky, reflecting an unmoving sea from below. The buildings that were there are white sterile marble with only the brown of the dirt around them to be a contrast. It was still, bland, nothing for miles. Like everything had died and the buildings were the only sign of civilization. If I was stuck in a place like this, a perfect replica that had no sign of life, I would go insane. Such an unchanging place of stillness is evil, antithetical to nature itself. It would eat away at anyone's mind, to be stuck in an endless, quiet and chilling place.

“What are your terms?” The smile on Eclipso went ear to ear if he had ears.

**Author's Note:**

> Hello, i'm not dead. Finals got my busy for a bit but now I'm back. ready to give all kinds of goodness to this story. What did you think of Eclipso in this? does he seem consistent to the comics version? I will admit to playing fast and loose with it. Anyway if you have any thought please give them.


End file.
